RT Book, Section
T1 The reality behind the rhetoric: EU-US relations under Trump
A1 Pass, Jonathan
K1 Trump
K1 EU-US relations
K1 US hegemony
K1 Foreign policy
K1 Populism
K1 NATO
K1 Multilateral institutions
AB Following the victory of Donald Trump in the November 2016 US presidential elections, a degree of consensus emerged amongst academics and media pundits alike that we were on the verge of a historic realignment of American foreign policy with the greater world (the ‘Grand Strategy’), which would have major effects both for the European Union (EU), and the liberal international order, in general. The incoming Trump administration was set on a hyper-nationalist mission to reverse its perceived decline. Any multilateral deal or foreign commitment considered incompatible with “America First” would be either renegotiated or simply eschewed. The administration signalled a departure from Washington’s traditional hostility toward Russia, with Trump repeatedly questioning the value of confronting Moscow, declining to unequivocally condemn Russian actions in Eastern Europe, and expressing a willingness to cooperate with Vladimir Putin in Syria by prioritising the fight against ISIS over efforts to challenge the Assad regime. Yet perhaps Trump’s most shocking declarations were to question the future of the transatlantic relationship. Trump stunned EU and American policy-makers alike by insinuating that the US might no longer unconditionally honour the North Atlantic Treaty’s Article 5, publicly admonishing at NATO members, demanding they “finally contribute their fair share and meet their financial obligations”, and even classifying the Atlantic alliance as “obsolete”. Transatlantic relations hit further depths following Trumps attacks on the EU, claiming that Brexit was a “great thing” (implying that more countries should follow them down that route); that Angela Merkel had committed “one catastrophic mistake” by allowing unlimited number of refugees into her country; while affirming the EU remained merely a “vehicle for Germany”. Understandably, this provoked angry responses from EU leaders, including the Presidents of both the European Council and the European Commission, as well as Merkel herself. Widespread doom-laden depictions on the immediate future of the transatlantic relationship, however, the chapter argues, tend to over-emphasize the importance of Trump’s ‘populist’ rhetoric, while over-simplifying the intricacies of American foreign policy elaboration. At a deeper level, such analysis grants far too much freedom to agency at the expense of the structural nature of power, and specifically US hegemony. This chapter seeks to address this oversight, drawing on a novel theoretical framework to uncover the underlying structural dynamics of US hegemony before highlighting the recurring themes and areas of tensions of the transatlantic relationship. The final section then unravels Trump’s rhetoric, predicting greater policy continuity with his predecessors than first appreciated.
PB Tirant lo Blanch
SN 9788413362243
YR 2019
FD 2019
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10433/26036
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10433/26036
LA en
NO Repensar la Unión Europea: gobernanza, seguridad, mercado interior y ciudadanía
NO Derecho Público
DS RIO
RD May 3, 2026